Sunday inspiration: Letting go

"Life is a lot like jazz.  It's best when you improvise." 

 -George Gershwin

This reminds me of another quote my mom has shared with me:

"Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape."

Letting go of what I think should be happening in our lessons has been one of the best things I've learned as a mom, and as a teacher.  When we keep our minds and hearts open (and my impatience in check!) magical musical discoveries abound!

Living Room Dance Party #15

I'm finally getting around to tell you about my fun new LRDP (and car dance party too, for that matter) find!  I won a giveaway from the super awesome Cathy over at Music for Tots and got a CD called Popcorn Bopping.  It's a collection of remixes and pop versions of all your favorite LDS Primary songs that your kids will love.

My favorite pick is the fun version of Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.  WonderGirl and I actually used it last night when we threw an impromptu dance party on the doorstep of teen girl from church that we were trying to cheer up.  It's silly, but you can't help but smile when you hear it (plus see 2 adult women and a preschooler doing the funky chicken to a boom box at your front door).  Mission accomplished!

It's sold through Deseret Book and I highly suggest checking it out.  I love most of the tracks (though there's a few I skip - the rap on I Hope They Call Me On a Mission especially ;) and you can even buy it from their website in MP3 format!  Here's a video some random person posted on youtube of their kid being cute with the tune Popcorn Popping in the background so you can hear it for yourself (I added it to the playlist too!).  Enjoy!

Worth it

WG and I, circa 2009

I'm settling into the fall routine.  I'm relishing all the one-on-one time with the now 2 year old Dude, but I miss WonderGirl all morning and I get a bit giddy when I get to pick her up from school.  Thankfully, the Dude still naps like a champ for 3 hours, so we get plenty of music/us time too in the afternoon.

Except - does the afternoon slump do something to you too?  As I put the Dude down to sleep and think about all I need to get done, I have this insane urge to join him.  Some days I do.  Especially recently, since everything has been all up in the air.  We had Nana visit, the husband and I had a fabulous weekend away in New York City, and all of us have gotten varying degrees of colds.  Some days you just have to give yourself a pass and know that it's okay to drop a few balls every now and then.

But I notice on the days that I end up lazying out and we don't do violin and piano lessons/practice, things tend to go south later.  Sure, I had a little more initial energy since I didn't expend any turning on my inner music teacher, but both our fuses seem to get shorter as the day goes on.  The light in our home dims just a bit.

Today when the afternoon slump hit, I sat on the couch, breathing through only half of my nose, and tried to psyche myself into gathering up WG for violin and piano.  "I don't have the energy today," I thought, and tried to come up with all the excuses I could reasonably cite without sounding too lazy.  But another thought came in loud and clear - "you know that no matter what the cost, it's worth it."

I got up.  As we bowed for violin and said our usual greeting of "konnichiwa," I added a goal of "I will be patient," and she said "I will try."  It wasn't a perfect lesson, but she tried the whole time, I resisted impatience, music was made and we invented a new game  to play.  When piano time was done, we went upstairs and painted our nails with glow-in-the-dark nail polish.

Now she's drawing pictures and doodling about on the piano for fun.  And I'm taking a blogging break, mostly to remind myself that it's worth it.  When it looks daunting from the front end, when the work is done - it feels wonderful.

the Treble Clef song!

Every Good Boy was getting old, and trying to spell FACE with that silent E was a wee bit frustrating, so we wrote a song to help us remember the treble clef notes.  Enjoy!!

Theory is poppin'!

Music theory day over here.  I decided to spice things up by making a staff with pipe cleaners on a book.  Plus it was snack time, so we put our popcorn to good use.

We focused on the treble clef, and I came up with a great tune to remember the note names with a tune from a Jim Gill tune.  I'd sing it for you, but my video camera is MIA, so that'll come later.  I had her point to the "notes" as we sang.

I'd tell her she could eat the piece of popcorn on a certain note, and if she picked the wrong one I got to eat it.  Or I'd have her close her eyes, I'd eat one and she had to tell me which one I'd gobbled.

Or have her put the popcorn on the two Ds or Es or Fs... you get the idea.

We also dropped it onto the "staff" and she got to eat the popcorn if she could tell me what note she'd landed on.

Doing this with M&Ms is always a winner, but I'd  rather she eat a lot of popcorn or cereal over a ton of candy any day.  Really, the possibilities are endless.  And delicious!

Straight bows with a bow

I remember teachers putting pieces of colored tape under my strings to encourage me to follow it and give them nice straight bows.  So when I started teaching, that's what I did, to some success.  But the other day during WonderGirl's lesson, I almost went looking for the tape but I found some ribbon first.

It's so simple - grab some pretty ribbon and tie it around the fiddle.  It doesn't move, doesn't get in the way of the strings, and she  loves accessorizing ANYTHING, so it fits her perfectly.

I tell her to aim her bow over it, and she does.  Mostly.  She's a work in progress, but every day is better and better.  Teaching isn't an exact science - it's looking for what will click with each kid and hoping it works.  Ribbons for my little girl are the ticket - I think when the Dude starts violin, I'll have to wind a rubber snake around it for him.

I love my little fiddler :)

Sunday inspiration: appreciation

Hi out there!! How is your summer going? Between the family visits and swimming lessons I haven't been here as much, but rest assured piano and violin are a-happening around these parts. Honestly, I've noticed that our day and our attitudes are vastly better on days that we get our lessons and practicing in as opposed to days where we give in to our summer exhaustion. It's worth it :)

So for your Sunday inspiration, here's a video to share with your wee ones, or just to enjoy yourself - the Copenhagen Philharmonic doing a flashmob playing Ravel's Bolero. Was there ever a more perfect piece written for a flashmob??? It's fun to see it performed when you've played it many times yourself, and as a violinist, I would definitely appreciate the opportunity to arrive at my heart's desire, seeing as the first kajillion measures are either rests or pizzicato. This makes me smile to no end. Enjoy!